Why I left the Republican Party to become a Democrat

The most important thing we have learned this year is that when
the Republican Party was hijacked by a dangerous fascist who
threatens to destroy the institutions that make America great and
free, most Republicans up and down the organizational chart stood
behind him and insisted he ought to be president.

Some did this because they are fools who do not understand why
Trump is dangerous.

Some did it because they were naïve enough to believe he could be
controlled and manipulated into implementing a normal Republican
agenda.

Of course, there were the minority of Republicans who did what
was right and withheld their support from Trump: people like Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, Sen. Ben Sasse
of Nebraska, and Hewlett-Packard CEO and megadonor Meg Whitman,
with her calling Trump "a threat to the survival of the
republic."

I want to focus on a fourth group: Republican politicians who
understand exactly how dangerous Donald Trump is but who have
chosen to support him anyway for reasons of strategy, careerism,
or cowardice.

Cowards and scoundrels

I am talking, for example, about Sen. Marco Rubio, who in the
primary called Trump an "erratic individual" who must not be
trusted with nuclear weapons — and then endorsed him for
president.

I am talking about Sen. Ted Cruz, who called Trump a
"pathological liar" and "utterly amoral" — and then endorsed him for president, even though
Trump never apologized for threatening to "spill the beans" on
Cruz's wife and suggesting Cruz's father was involved in the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Most of all, I'm talking about House Speaker Paul Ryan, a man whose
pained, blue eyes suggest he desperately wants to cry for help.
He's a man who runs around the country pathetically trying to
pretend that Trump does not exist and that the key issue is his
congressional caucus' "Better Way" agenda. And he's a man who, of
his own free will, seeks to help Donald Trump become president.

These men are not fools like Ben Carson.

US Sen. Marco Rubio of
Florida.Thomson
Reuters

To borrow a phrase from Rubio, they know exactly what they are
doing: They are taking an action that risks the destruction of
the American republic to advance their personal interests.

They know what Whitman knows about the risks Trump poses to
America. Rubio himself warned specifically of the risk of Trump
starting a nuclear war! But they do not care.

I can conclude from the available evidence only that they love
their careers more than they love America. And they are why I
quit the Republican Party this week.

Why I was a Republican

I'm not a conservative. I know a lot of you already thought my
Republican affiliation was a trolling exercise, and honestly, my
registration change
was probably overdue.

I became a Republican as a teenager because of my upbringing in
Massachusetts, a state where the GOP has produced five good
governors in my lifetime, from Bill Weld (now the Libertarian
Party's vice-presidential nominee) to Charlie Baker. I worked for
Mitt Romney when he ran for governor, and while I did not like
his presidential campaigns, I think he has a record in
Massachusetts he can be proud of.

All four living current and former Republican governors of
Massachusetts oppose Trump.

I stayed a Republican because of my background working in state
and local government finance, a policy area where a
well-functioning Republican Party can bring important restraint.
I have voted Republican, for example, in each of the past three
New York City mayoral races.

I don't think it was ridiculous to be in a party that I disagreed
with on a lot of national issues. Change is made through party
coalitions, and I thought the Republican Party was where I was
more likely to be able to improve ideas at the margin in the long
run. Being a member of a party does not obligate you to vote for
its bad candidates in the meantime.

But what this election has made clear is that policy is not the
most important problem with the Republican Party.

Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska
at the CPAC conference for conservatives in
March.REUTERS/Gary
Cameron

The GOP was vulnerable to hacking

The Republican Party had a fundamental vulnerability: Because of
the
fact-free environment so many of its voters live in, and
because of the
anti-Democrat hysteria that had been willfully whipped up by
so many of its politicians, it was possible for the party to be
taken over by a fascist promising revenge.

And because there are only two major parties in the United
States, and either of the parties' nominees can become president,
such vulnerability in the Republican Party constitutes
vulnerability in our democracy.

I can't be a part of an organization that creates that kind of
risk.

What parties are for

My editor asked why I became a Democrat instead of an
independent. I did that because I believe political parties are
key vehicles for policymaking, and choosing not to join one is
choosing to give up influence.

I agree with Sasse, the senator from Nebraska, that parties exist
in service of policy ends and that loyalty to the party
should be contingent on whether loyalty serves those ends.
Because of this, it is worth joining a party even if you do not
intend to be a partisan, and even if you will often oppose what
the party does.

Sasse was one of the earliest and loudest voices of resistance to
Trump in the Republican Party, and after the intra-GOP civil war
that is sure to ensue from Trump's loss, I wonder whether he will
decide remaining in the GOP does a service to the ends he cares
about.

Sasse is a lot more conservative than I am, so I don't expect him
to become a Democrat. It makes sense for people like him and
Kasich to try, after the election, to wrest control of the party
away from the conspiracy nuts and proto-fascists.

But I believe they will fail. And I'm not going to stick around
to watch.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article said Ted Cruz
had called Donald Trump a "con artist." It was Marco Rubio who
called him that. It's become difficult to keep track of which
Trump endorsers said which things about Trump's manifest
unfitness to be president.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Insider.